The president on Monday echoed Federal Bureau of Investigation officials, who have said they're investigating Saturday's stabbing of nine people at a St. Cloud mall as a potential act of terrorism. The group claimed Adan was a "soldier" in the immediate aftermath of the attack.

"We haven't uncovered anything that would suggest [he was not a] lone attacker at this point", St Cloud's police chief, William Blair Anderson, said Sunday at a news conference. There is also no indication of any connection between the mall attack in Minnesota and the bombings in NY and New Jersey.

"We can not give ISIS and other terrorist organizations more air time and propaganda without real facts", said Jaylani Hussein, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations' Minnesota chapter. He said it doesn't appear anyone else was involved in the attack at the Crossroads Center in St. Cloud, which began about 8 p.m. and was over within minutes. He had only a traffic ticket on his record, was apparently out of work after his job as a part-time security guard ended and hadn't enrolled in college since the spring semester. Paul, condemned the attack and Adan's family expressed concern about possible backlash.

Special Agent-in-Charge Richard T. Thornton said the investigation will be directed by the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force.

Minnesota has the nation's largest Somali population, an estimated 57,000 people.

The attack in St. Cloud, a city of about 65,000 people, began shortly after an explosion in a crowded New York City neighborhood injured 29 people.

"I implore the citizens of St. Cloud and the citizens of Minnesota to rise above this incident and remember our common humanity", Dayton said.

"It's going to be tough times".

Eyewitnesses reported incidents of intimidation on Sunday night, as roving groups in pickup trucks and motorcycles rode through heavily Somali residential areas carrying American and Confederate flags, and yelling racial slurs. Last year, some Somali-American students walked out in protest, saying they were being harassed and called members of Islamic State. He was said to be an honor student in high school. A 2011 agreement resolved the case, but the U.S. Department of Education still was monitoring the case previous year.

The speed with which IS weighed in may also say something about a competition for recruits between the Middle East-based IS and the east Africa-based militant group al-Shabab, which has recruited Somali-Americans from Minnesota with some success in recent years.

Authorities are investigating the stabbings of nine people at a central Minnesota mall as a potential act of terrorism, a finding that would be the realization of long-held fears of a domestic attack there.

Electrolux Home Products' spokeswoman Eloise Hale said Monday that the man was an employee of the security firm Securitas and was assigned for a few months to an Electrolux facility.

Authorities didn't identify the attacker, but the Star Tribune of Minneapolis said the man's father identified him as Dahir A. Adan, 22. Police also said he was 20.

"It is with great sadness that Somali Community Development of ND reach out to the community of Saint Cloud, MN and all those impacted by the heinous actions of the individual responsible", the statement read.

A Somali community advocate who spoke with Adan's parents said he was going to the mall to pick up an iPhone. Police said Monday that Adan struggled to get up three times before he died.

A person at the T-Mobile store where Yusuf said Adan had gone declined to comment or take a message for his supervisor.

Adan was ultimately shot to death by an off-duty police officer inside Macy's, which he entered in order to attempt the continuation of his shooting spree.

"Thanks to the quick action of a courageous off-duty police officer, the suspect was killed and we avoided more people being hurt", Obama said during a NY appearance Monday.